Going Virtual

But one thing that may change is companies' use of e-meetings. VMS Inc., a third-party meeting-management company, reports that its webcast and teleconference programs have increased as clients have anticipated the changes in the new PhRMA code.

“They've been a very minor piece of our business in the past, but we think they'll be a significant piece of our business in the future. Clients are still faced with a need to reach healthcare professionals; they're probably looking at doing it in different, nontraditional ways. So we've seen them reaching toward enhanced technology to deliver the same key messages,” says Abby Mallon, CMP, vice president, VMS Medical, Chicago. “I think the online programs will be in addition to live meetings. The majority of the webcast programs so far have been for advisory board meetings. The typical model we're seeing is that instead of doing a live meeting four times a year with their advisers, they will do one live meeting and then follow that up with three webcasts throughout the year.”

No More Resorts

For face-to-face meetings produced by pharma companies, another aspect affected by the code is site selection. The previous code said that venues had to be conducive to the meeting but did not specifically prohibit resorts, although it suggested other venues might be more appropriate. Under the new code, resorts are verboten for events such as speaker-training and consultant meetings. Since most pharma companies have been avoiding lavish venues since the first code came out, that's not a cataclysmic change.

“We already have a plan that clearly outlines appropriate properties,” says Kerns of Bristol-Myers Squibb. “We don't go to resorts. We don't go to five-star or five-diamond hotels. Also, we benchmark with many of our pharmaceutical meeting management colleagues and most have established the same policy regarding five-star hotels. We don't see a dramatic difference with regard to site selection.”

But although the trend has been away from resorts, the outright prohibition will make a difference in marketing. “I don't think most physicians go to these meetings just so they can hang out at a cool resort. But a five-star resort on the invitation is attention-getting and we no longer have that option. We're going to have to communicate more creatively about why they ought to come — because the possibilities for this drug are so compelling, or the scientific discussion is going to be something they're going to want to be involved in,” says Terri Breining, CMP, CMM, founder and president, Concepts Worldwide, a corporate meeting planning firm in Carlsbad, Calif. “Physicians have a lot of choices about where to spend their time,” she says. “The challenge is to create a meeting that is attractive and compelling without violating the code, without having either the reality or the perception of extravagance.”

Room for Interpretation

Medical Meetings asked attorney Michael Manthei, a partner with Holland & Knight LLP, Boston, to comment on some PhRMA code compliance questions that came up in our interviews with meeting planners.

MM: What if a five-star hotel calls a meeting planner because it has open dates and offers a special rate for those dates? If it's in the right location and the overall cost would be less than for a three- or four-star property, would the five-star hotel be an appropriate venue for a pharma meeting?

Manthei: This is a question that comes up often. The key is documentation. I would say that if you can document that the rate brings the cost below that of some three- or four-star properties, and the five-star hotel is equally convenient and equally conducive to the purposes of the meeting, then I don't see a problem with it. Of course, it all depends on the pharma company's own compliance program.

MM: The code prohibits carry-out meals. But if a meeting ends near lunchtime, can the planner provide doctors with a box lunch to eat on the way to the airport? If a box lunch isn't provided, then the doctors will eat at the airport and include it on the expense reimbursement form.

Manthei: I think you have to look at it in context. If you're in a situation in which the rules would otherwise allow you to provide a modest meal in conjunction with the event, or otherwise would permit you to reimburse the physicians' expenses, you can give a boxed lunch. You're just substituting one for the other.

MM: Is serving wine or liquor at meals allowed?

Manthei: Historically, it has been customary to have wine or maybe one cocktail. There's no specific reference in any of the guidances of which I'm aware about serving or paying for alcohol. I think it goes back to the core principle that it should be modest by local standards and conducive to the underlying purpose of the gathering. So if it's an informational meeting over dinner, the meal has to be modest and that would include the cost and consumption of alcohol. The most conservative approach, of course, would be to say no alcohol.

MM: If a meeting planner hires a string quartet to play in the background as guests arrive for a dinner meeting, does that violate the ban on entertainment?

Manthei: Is it entertainment? Arguably it's not. It creates ambience, not unlike paying to have the hotel music system played. It's a tough call. I don't think it's necessarily going to raise any eyebrows, but it points up the difficulty of defining some of these terms.

MM: Meals are no longer allowed, but can exhibitors still give away refreshments at their booths? While a bowl of mints would seem to be OK, what about a cappuccino machine?

Manthei: It's one of those things that's not directly addressed in the code. I would say that so long as what you're giving is truly modest and available to everybody who might walk by, then it's probably OK.

Drowning in Data

More paperwork for meeting planners. That's going to be one of the effects of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America's updated Code on Interactions with Healthcare Professionals. “Companies are going to have to create or purchase mechanisms to capture data that they may not have been capturing before, like the amounts paid to individual physicians as speakers, or things of that nature,” says attorney Michael Manthei, a partner with Holland & Knight LLP, Boston.

This ripple effect throughout the industry will be driven not just by the code but by state legislation. In Massachusetts, for example, the most recent state to institute pharma marketing restrictions, the new law requires companies to capture all remuneration. “Theoretically, although it's not entirely clear, [that could include] even the value of meals that are served at a company-sponsored informational event,” says Manthei.

“What that means for everybody in the industry, including meeting planners, is they're going to be called upon more and more to keep better records and be able to parse where all the money is going,” he says. “The PhRMA code doesn't really get much into setting limits. They use terms like modest. But I think the best practice that many manufacturers are adopting is to set specific limits, and specific limits have to be tracked.”